New thought: if police have weapons that are prohibited to civilians, do they lose their civilian law enforcement status? Military is banned from law enforcement in the US.

Simple answer: No.

As state or local government law enforcement, the agencies will simply be excepted from the ban. Now, whether or not the same officers will be able to make a private purchase of a banned weapon is another story. I do believe there were some excpetions for LEOs to make authorized private purchases under the old ban, but I can't be certain.

Now, our Second Amendment was set up to prevent the possible future rise of a tyrannical government. Yeah, times have changed and the puny .223 platform isn't much against drones, tanks, aircraft, etc. Still yet, look around the world at places where people are throwing rocks and molotov cocktails in protest against same tyrannical governments.

As said in my previous post. You've had yours taken away. We'd like to keep ours.

I've heard that argument over and over from the anti-gunners in my social circle when I note that the Second Amendment is intended to be the people's ultimate check and balance in the Constitution, or is the guarantee provision for their other cherished rights, such as their First Amendment rights. "But the people couldn't win against the United States military."

But it's not necessarily about "winning" some hypothetical Second Revolution. It's about keeping the potential tyrants off-balance and making them think twice about the chaos that would be unleashed if they overstep their bounds. The Second Amendment is about ensuring that the Federal Government doesn't have a monopoly on violence as a political tool. Any time a politician -- even one with Unicorns, Jesus, and only the best intentions in his heart -- says, "No civilian needs that kind of firepower..." I believe the Second Amendment is doing its job making the government nervous.

This all reeks of mass paranoia. When was the last time the US or UK had a tyrannical government? Not in your life time. The Germans are now nice friendly people if they were going to invade Europe they'd be doing it know when every country in Europe can't afford a decent military.

America seems like a paranoid country full of guns which is a bad mix.

And when I say health care I'm referring to free health care ie the NHS. I saw a documentary about Obama and his idea for health care and I couldn't believe how many people opposed it. One guy had cancer and had to sell his house to pay the medical bill making his family homeless yet call free health care " communist" in the UK it's illegal for a child to be homeless that's why we have social housing.

You mean banning guns in response to shooting sprees that take roughly as many lives as lightning strikes in a country of 330 million people, a third of whom are armed? Reinstating a ban which had no impact on crime whatsoever when it was enacted, and none when it expired? yeah, that's paranoia.